Conventionally, a melamine decorative laminated sheet has been preferably used for a horizontal surface such as a counter, a desk, and others because of its excellent properties in surface hardness, heat resistance, abrasion resistance, and the like. The melamine decorative laminated sheet is generally obtained by stacking a melamine resin impregnated pattern paper, which is obtained by impregnating a pattern base paper for a decorative laminated sheet with a resin liquid composed primarily of melamine-formaldehyde resin and drying the impregnated pattern base paper, and a phenol resin impregnated core paper, which is obtained by impregnating a kraft paper with a resin liquid composed primarily of phenol-formaldehyde resin and drying the impregnated kraft paper, and then applying heat and pressure thereto with a flat plate pressing machine (see Patent Documents 1-5).
Patent Document 1: Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-199528
Patent Document 2: Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-199495
Patent Document 3: Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-146272
Patent Document 4: Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-292870
Patent Document 5: Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-119354
Although a melamine decorative laminated sheet excels in surface hardness, heat resistance, abrasion resistance, and the like, which are properties of melamine resin, the melamine decorative laminated sheet is disadvantageous in that a surface thereof is easily stained with greasy dirt such as a fingerprint (sebum membrane). Especially, in a case of an embossed decorative laminated sheet having asperities on a surface thereof, an adhering fingerprint is highly visible in contrast to its surroundings because an embossed portion has low glossiness due to diffused reflection of lights, whereas a portion to which a fingerprint adheres exhibits a wet color. A further disadvantage is that patterns on a printed paper cannot be clearly observed due to reflection of lights and white blur on a melamine resin layer.